The National Geographic film The Violent Earth followed Tazieff's expeditions to the volcanoes Mount Etna, Sicily in 1971 and Mount Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire ) in 1972 in which he attempted, unsuccessfully, to descend into the active lava lake in order to collect samples (which he had achieved on a previous expedition in 1959).

He participated in the first explorations of the “Pierre Saint-Martin abyss” in the French Pyrenees. In 1952, he was filming the ascension of Marcel Loubens when the cable of the hoist broke and Loubens fell over 80 meters. He died 36 hours later and his body could be extracted from the cavern only in 1954.

Haroun Tazieff became famous in France after publishing the book “Le Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin” (8 editions, first in 1952, Ed Arthaud, Grenoble).